One Belief
by KhalOfKhals
Summary: A short story I wrote I cooked up after reading WWZ for the 9th time. Note that my grammar will not be anything close to perfect and by all means, I welcome all constructive criticism. Hope it isn't too bad.


Igor had never been one for interviews of any sort, that was not to say he was ill mannered or slow, he was simply more accustomed to tilling the earth and bantering about with his friends then the staunch formality of an interview. And despite his lack of experience with bureaucracy, It occurred even to Igor that this was a most unusual interview, as it was to be conducted in a dimly lit basement of a house in a city that he barely remembered entering. He sat on one end of a small and modest wooden table, the table itself supported a small gas lamp, which was the sole source of light in the otherwise darkened room. He sat upon a small wooden stool and if he shifted about enough he could feel shards and splinters poking ever so gently through his tattered coat, like the nibbles of fleas upon the rump of a boar. There was a single window that appeared to be placed right out at ground level, one could guess that it was night because the window was black, but Igor did not rule out the chance of someone simply leaving a tarp over the damn thing to keep the autumn draft out. There was a single exit and it lay directed in front of him, it was wooden staircase that lead directly to a wooden door. Igor debated internally as to whether or not to attempt escape, but where could he go? He certainly couldn't go home given the events of the past few weeks and he was utterly ignorant of his surrounding and So Igor waited and waited for what seemed like the lifespan of the walls themselves. During this time Igor actually began to relax, his eyes began to slowly slink closed, enticing himself with thoughts of soft beds and warm meals. The room was still and under different circumstances, it could've even been called peaceful. Whatever peace there was however, was shattered as the door at the door at the top of the staircase opened with a sudden a forceful woosh. Someone was clearly trying to make an eccentric entrance, a twisted psychopath maybe or perhaps an actor of some kind, Igor was confused. An entirely different person descended down the staircase and to igor's surprise it was a uniformed officer. She had short black hair and sharp brown eyes that complimented her forceful stride and precise look about her. She wore black-heeled boots that went up to her knee, with the rest of her slender legs adorned with a pair of stockings and short black shorts. Her brown jacket, which only covered her upper torso at best, was adorned with the oddest symbol, a green unicorn with a white mane. She met his eyes while she walked downward but spoke nothing, instead quickly taking a seat opposite him and adjusting herself. After a brief interlude of silence, she spoke. "I am Lieutenant Katrina Rommel, of the Sina wall military police." She removed a file from her coat, and began to thumb through it." "You must be Igor Sakovic, a Soldier of Riga, you're a long way east soldier." "When you stumbled through the gates, we thought you were spying." "The spy master wanted to mail your head westward, to make a point about discipline or some such, but it is by the grace of the king that you remain breathing" "However, the reason were going to have this little informal chat is because, well, to put it bluntly, youre the first Rigan we've come to into contact with since last thaw." "We have heard odd reports as well, here, one of our boys found this for sale in the market place last week, five marks." She took from her coat a small locket and gently placed into igor's open and outstretched hand." It was of his wife and daughter, he glanced at it for only a moment before quickly sighing and dashing it into his coat, he couldn't cry, no more tears to shed." "Weve been finding all sorts of Rigan possessions for sale, jewelry, dolls, plates, silverware, weapons, hell we even found several prize horses for sale." "Care to explain." Igor, his face drained of all emotion, simply stated , "They came and in their wake I might as well be the last Rigan on the continent, and the world." "Who came?." Katrina replied quickly."Was it the Kolechians?" No. "The Marakokas?" Once again, his answer simply No. "The Andrastians?" "No, to call them men is to give man too little credit, they are monsters, killing machines of unrivaled power, driven by hunger alone." "What are they." "We called them the Ukrashi, The Angry Night.

"Its funny really, I was a guardsmen like you once, I also sat upon my cities walls and watched for the occasional stampede or bandit raid. I too had a uniform, although mine was thicker you see, kept out the winter chill better." My unit was in charge of the big guns, large cannons designed to reduce whatever we wanted into dust and then some. They were mostly for show, our sister cities had signed treaties with us long ago for mutual defense, so we most kept them around to fire off during parades and holidays, or to scare of the birds that would go on the watch towers. The men had gotten lazy, what we were worried about? Every sane bandit had gone to his hideaway and no army attacks during winter! It was a calm season, winter had a way of driving everyone inside, out of the icy grip, save for us. We stood there for weeks, from sunup to sundown, freezing our collective asses off , occasionally one of the men would bring out a guitar, or id send a private to raid the colonel's wine cellar, It's not like the old bastard could drink it all himself. For all it's calmness though, that winter was strange and we were fools to have not noticed that something was amiss. Trade was slow during the winter months, yeah, but there was usually still a few caravans delivering bread and grain even during the harshest years. But within weeks of the first snowfall, there was nothing, no peasants, no merchants, no visiting dignitaries, nothing. The king had gotten nervous, after all his fine spices were no longer arriving. So I sent out a few scouts and patrols to watch the roads, they found no tracks. The snow remained untouched. A week after that, we got reports from the outer villages that the peasants had been hearing strange noises. Howls and snarls and such, damned fools were probably just hearing the wolves, but given the strange disappearances, I was cautious. I still remember the day I sent those men to guard those outer hamlets, poor bastards, they were recruits, farm boys who could barely hold their rifles. They never stood a chance. That night we heard the crackle of gunfire in the woods, near the villages, it sounded like our men but we could've been sure. The gunfire only lasted a few minutes really. The screams are what lasted. These were no regular bandits. This was something else entirely. I was ordered to march my unit to a spot overlooking the village closest to the wall the following morning, but when I woke up. Sorry, it's nothing.

With that Igor's lips began to quiver and his fingers began to twitch, he shook.

Are you alright? Katrina asked, Do you want to stop?

"No, no, you need to know this." Igor said with renewed vigor, "When I woke , I stepped outside my bunk to all of the men staring off into the distance, into the forest grove. There was this deafening roar and the sounds of snapping wood, whatever it was it was tearing through the forest like tissue. These weren't your ever day garden plants either, these trees had been tall since my fathers fathers fathers day, these things had to be strong.

The first one came into distance a few minutes later, its head poking out just above the tips of the trees. It was like a man, in fact it was much like a man, save for the fact it was stark naked and had a mouth full of sharp pointed teeth. I gave the command to fire the light cannons, these small 50 mm things used for peppering armies. We ran out the guns, the creature stumbled, but within seconds it kept right on coming. I then ordered the heavier 75mm guns, the ones we use for sieges, to fire for it's face. The shots hit and it hurt the bastard, tore off a chunk of his face, we saw the rest of his jaw, that thing certainly wasn't human, no man has that many teeth. He was persistent, so I order the largest guns we had, the ones we used only when we really needed something dead and gone, the 200mm pounders, I had the men fire full blast, simultaneously. Torn the things head right off it's body, blood went in all directions, soaking the field like paint on a canvas, the men were cheering, we had won , I ordered medals for the gun crews and drinks for the rest. But then, we heard that roar again, only this time it was much louder, it came from all directions and moments after we saw dozens of those … things marching towards our wall. They looked like women and men, but giant and deformed, hideous things. I heard more cannons from the distance, the other walls were hitting them, they were coming from all sides. We ourselves had around twenty of them besiege our walls. I told the men to fire everything from the smallest musket to largest cannon. What began as a trickle turned into a wave as dozens of the bastards swarmed us. We were taking down a few here and there; those ukrashi fell alright, but not nearly fast enough. The first one to get into grabbing distance picked up the man on the forward most gun, Pavel, his name was, I remember his baptism and his father was a drinking friend of mine. The creature ate his upper torso in a single bite and spat the rest out like jerky. By this point the men panicked, I would've tried to inspire them, maybe shoot the ones who fled first but it was pointless as I was running myself. They breached the other walls at around the same time. The guardsmen ran like scared cats from a pack of wolves. The civilians and nobles alike also made a mad dash for the south gate, we heard there were less of them there. As we all ran, I did actually get to kill some bad men that day, two looters and some rushak who was robbing an old woman. I shot the looters in the head, but left the rushak alive with blown knees, he didn't deserve the mercy. A wave of refuges ran out of the south gate, some got scooped up by the monsters, most ran for the hills, easy prey for the elements. I personally found a few of my men and their families. They still respected their captain. We marched towards your city, three days walk. We scrounged off of what we could, berries, nuts, water from stream, the children were always fed first, then the women, then us. We were attacked by one of those things when we set up camp for the second night, it ate three of men, each in front of their wives and children. It was only killed when a corporal of mine, Kolchak, strapped himself with dynamite and allowed it to eat him. The crazy bastard blew it's head like a pumpkin. He was a hero. I and my three remaining soldiers, out of a battalion of three hundred reached your walls and then…

Im here. You ought to prepare, we had an army of expierenced soliders and the best guns in the north, if they can crush us within three hours, I shutter to think what these titans can do to you.


End file.
